Protective coverings have become popular for use in the outer portions of houses, trailers and other more permanent structures. A common covering used is an awning which is secured on its upper end to the upright wall of the structure and on its lower end portions to the ground. It is important for several reasons to provide strudy attachments for both ends of the awning in the event of high winds, rain storms or the like. Since the awning is usually utilized in exposed, outside portions of a structure, it becomes even more vulnerable to the elements. There is a need for anchor systems or an attachment system that provides maximum stability to these type protective coverings. While protective coverings will be referred to as "awnings" throughout this disclosure, it is understood that awnings is intended to include any type of protective coverings such as aluminum, glass fiber, wood or any other material covering.
There are known several systems for anchoring protective coverings to the ground. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,327,724 (Nielsen) a system is disclosed wherein a flexible hold down member is attached to the leading bottom edge of a protective covering and to the ground. Upright supports or pegs are pushed or screwed into the ground and ropes are connected to the pegs and the bottom edge of the covering. The rope is threaded through a washer in the pegs and wound around the pegs for security and stability. The rope is then tightened by the use of a spring loaded washer secured to the peg. This system depends to a great extent on the durability of the rope used and its ability to maintain its conditions and tautness. If, for example, the rope stretches when wet, it could cause the support to become loose and insecure. In addition, the Nielsen system uses a skewer type stake that is placed in the ground between the awning poles where the ropes are attached to the top of the poles and down to the skewer. A stronger and more secure system would provide for attachemnt directly to the bottom of a foot plate at the end of an awning arm. In addition, the use of ropes can be hazardous or unsafe, especially at night when they are not easily seen and where someone can trip or fall over them.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,438 to Johnson, et al., a system is disclosed wherein foot pieces are used to hold the awning support poles in a vertical position. In his system, foot pieces are placed on the ground and nails, stakes or rods are driven through apertures in these foot pieces into the ground. The vertical supporting pole is then secured to the foot piece to provide an upright support for the awning. These foot pieces can be easily dislodged or pulled free from the ground in that the nails attaching them to the ground have no means to provide resistance to uprooting or dislodging.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,851 (Gitkin), an awning system is disclosed wherein a combined movable shutter and awning is utilized. The shutter is a roller shutter capable of extension and retraction movable between positions providing a closure for a door assembly or the like. Gitkin also teaches if the area over which the awning is supported is grass or soil, the lower ends of the supports posts may be provided with a pointed ground inserting member. This inserting member has a horizontal flange spaced from the pointed end thereof to limit the insertion into the ground surface and facilitates the insertion by use of a plate on which a foot is placed. The foot is then pressed down so that the pointed end of the support post can be driven into the ground. Also Gitkin suggests the use of some type of locking device between the lower end of the post and the patio deck or ground such that a positive anchor is provided. While Gitkin recognizes the problem of securing a support post to the ground, he does not specifically provide a system to solve the problem, but rather suggests "by any of various conventional structures".
There is therefore a need to provide a system for securely and safely anchoring an awning structure to the ground.